Years of tidal currents have formed this special shell bank of cockle and oyster shells which surrounds an extensive saltmarsh, home to thousands of wintering birds

Once gravel pits, this land was flooded and transformed into a wildlife haven where you can discover new wildlife round every bend or sit back on one of the benches and take it all in

Fingringhoe Wick was Essex Wildlife Trust's first nature reserve (1961), some years later it was where the Trust opened their first visitor centre. Sixty years on visitors are still coming…

Wander through one of the few remaining Thameside grazing marshes; full of flowering plants and visiting migrant birds

Just around the corner from The Naze Centre you'll find John Weston Nature Reserve, an important site for passing birds in the spring and autumn

A small reserve where the scrub comes alive with birdsong in spring and the ponds are a haven for damselflies